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NoSQL Data Modeling Techniques

NoSQL databases are often compared by various non-functional criteria, such as scalability, performance, and consistency. This aspect of NoSQL is well-studied both in practice and theory because specific non-functional properties are often the main justification for NoSQL usage and fundamental results on distributed systems like the CAP theorem apply well to NoSQL systems. At the same time, NoSQL data modeling is not so well studied and lacks the systematic theory found in relational databases. In this article I provide a short comparison of NoSQL system families from the data modeling point of view and digest several common modeling techniques.

I would like to thank Daniel Kirkdorffer who reviewed the article and cleaned up the grammar.

To explore data modeling techniques, we have to start with a more or less systematic view of NoSQL data models that preferably reveals trends and interconnections. The following figure depicts imaginary “evolution” of the major NoSQL…